Don’t be so quick to exonerate school boards
To the Editor:
Steven C. Fleury (“Seeking fairness in state’s funding of schools,” March 28 ) should not be so quick to exonerate local school boards. First of all, the largest cost to any district is salaries and benefits. The board of education approves contracts. To blame state officials for the entire problem with schools is, in my opinion, just another example of an elected official dodging responsibility.

Fleury goes on to whine about unfunded mandates such as special education. To attack our most vulnerable students is unconscionable. Would Fleury recommend we return to the good old days and simply warehouse students with special needs? How can someone who is a professor of education make such a broad generalization?

Fleury may not be guilty of “mismanaging” public funds. However, too many local school boards would rather do what is popular instead of what is right. Fleury’s claim that “everyone is willing to accept a sacrifice and to do the work that needs to be done” is inaccurate. While teachers have renegotiated their contracts and accepted a smaller pay raise, I have not heard of a single administrator willing to renegotiate his or her contract and take a smaller pay raise. While school boards approve budgets that lay off teachers, I have yet to hear that any administrator will be laid off.

If Fleury believes that being on a school board is becoming too “political” he should take heed of the old saying “if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

David Dragicevich
Lacona

Before bashing Reiki, become informed
To the Editor:

I am responding to Professor Mahlon W. Wagner’s March 29 letter stating Reiki is “a slap in the face of scientific, evidenced-based medicine” and Professor Bryce M. Hand’s echo of the same opinion. Reiki therapy is known widely as an integrative energy therapy and recognized by the National Institutes of Health. It is used to ease the side effects of chemotherapy and has been proven to help in pain management for fibromyalgia, arthritis and lupus. Reiki is practiced in the Mayo Clinic and other prestigious medical facilities across the United States, so Syracuse area hospitals are late in adopting Reiki.

Reiki is used as another tool to increase a person’s physical and spiritual health. I tried Reiki therapy to appease my elderly aunt whose recovery from a severe stroke amazed her physician and physical therapist. They both attributed her outstanding recovery to Reiki. I do not work in the medical field and yet was skeptical. Astonishingly, my own physician offered Reiki separately from his traditional medical practice. After enjoying the benefits of Reiki, I decided to become a practitioner for my own health, and after two years I am a second-degree practitioner.

Before anyone throws stones, please develop an informed opinion. If you can open your minds enough to learn more about Reiki, please find a reputable practitioner or at least take the time to read, “Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide,” by Pamela Miles, one of our country’s foremost Reiki experts. You might find it has some merit.

Deborah A. DuBord
Oswego

Coverage ignored true purpose of using drones
To the Editor:
A Haitian proverb states, “We see from where we stand.” Regarding the March 5 front-page story “A final farewell to F-16s,” I have a different view of the program. Much is not covered regarding the drone ( pilotless planes) program. What should have been included in the article is the true purpose of the drone program.

In Nazi Germany, there was a Final Solution plan used by the leaders to get rid of their enemies: the Jews, the disabled, gays (all referred to as vermin by the Nazis). These people were sent to concentration camps, gassed and that was how the Germans disposed of their enemies.

The current drone program is our country’s Final Solution to kill our enemies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and wherever we want. Everything is remotely controlled — no danger to the heroic pilot. What is not told is that the pilot has a screen on which he can see civilian people along with the official targeted enemy. The pilot goes ahead and kills the targeted person and the civilians. This, of course, is against all “laws” of war.

Just as the killers in the concentration camps went home after a day’s worked and enjoyed family life, so do the drone “pilots.”

Cynthia Banas
Vernon

Excellus board raises galling in this economy
To the Editor:
I would have written sooner, but I needed time to calm down. While reading the March 16 article about Excellus board members giving themselves pay raises, my immediate thought was “Are you kidding me?” How dare they? In our present economy, along with their premium increases to consumers – what gall!

Their spokesperson trying to “explain it away,” sickened me. I don’t care what their financial advisers said (their pay scale not being up to industry standards?) If this is true for all insurance company boards, then they’re all crazy. This is a not-for-profit company. Again: “Are you kidding me?”

What happened to volunteering on boards? Apparently at insurance companies, including Excellus, this must be unheard of. Did any of the board members not see the inequities between them and others? Did any of them have the class or ethics to refuse the raise? Apparently not.

I was so glad to see The Post-Standard’s editorial as well as letters from other disgusted readers.

I am fed up with greed!

Sharon A. Ligoci
North Syracuse

Republican senators should work with Obama
To the Editor:
As a Republican, I am ashamed of the action of late by the Republican members of the U.S. Senate.

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

They should be working with the president, not fighting everything he’s trying to do to help our fellow Americans.

M. Clark
Weedsport

Statistics defy GOP vote on health care
To the Editor:

Reasonable people may certainly have different views on important issues. This is surely the case on the national health care debate that has been gripping the American people as well as those elected to serve.

Let us assume that each representative would either be voting his or her conscience for he or she believe is best for the American people or vote for what they believe is best for his or her individual constituents. In either case, it is statistically impossible to explain how every single Republican representative would cast their vote identically.

Gary Philips
Liverpool

Will Limbaugh really move to Costa Rica?
To the Editor:
Now that the health care reform bill has been passed, one wonders if Rush Limbaugh has packed his bags and left the country, to Costa Rica as he said he would do if the bill passed. One can hope that Limbaugh is a man of his word.

Edmund Pizon
Liverpool

Another voice for anti-Palin chorus
To the Editor:
I find it startling that pro-Sarah Palin letters to the editor are usually from men, and anti-Sarah Palin letters are usually from women!

Well, here’s another one: In a sentence, Palin is not close to knowledgeable enough about U.S. and world history and present problems, and she is too narrow-minded to be able to govern in a diverse society such as ours.

Add mine to the anti-Palin women’s tally!

Elizabeth Seager
Syracuse

SU should revive its wrestling program
To the Editor:
A ring to Cornell’s athletic director for basketball and wrestling. The wrestlers took second behind Iowa, but knocked off powerhouses like Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Penn State and about 40 other schools — all at the Omaha NCAAs. All six sessions were sold out, with about 16,000 people at each. Why can’t Syracuse have a team? If SU had a team and the NCAA in the Dome they’d draw 40,000!

The chancellor before Nancy Cantor dropped gymnastics and wrestling. He was one of those guys who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing!

Syracuse University, get with it. There are about 10,000 kids in New York state wrestling!

Robert H. Feldmeier
Syracuse

In the grand scheme, basketball’s a game
To the Editor:
Now that the Orange have been eliminated from the NCAA tournament, the weeping and gnashing of teeth by the Syracuse University fans is sure to begin.

To them I offer one point of perspective: In the grand scheme of life on this small blue planet spinning in the vastness of the universe, it’s only some people playing with a ball.

Cliff Ballway
Syracuse

Eliminate animal circuses from our communities
To the Editor:
The Shriners is a great organization that has helped many injured children in its burn center. But it is puzzling that such a humane organization would support cruelty to animals. There are many non-animal circuses that could be a great charity vehicle for them, but they continue to insist on using animal circuses, which by their nature are cruel to the animals, which are violently trained and have endured most of their lives in cages and trailers.

The Shriners also continue to sponsor rodeos, which likewise could be transformed into animal-friendly events — not ones that frequently have calves injured or killed in brutal exhibitions. This year the Asian Television Network is sponsoring the Shriner circus, and hopefully they will become more enlightened and not sponsor animal circuses.

Humanitarian Albert Schweitzer wisely said that until humankind extends its compassion to include all creatures, we will never find peace. Schweitzer also said that he held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end. Mahatma Gandhi believed that the moral progress of a nation can be measured by the way it treats its animals. We need to eliminate animal circuses and brutal rodeos from our communities.

C.G. Varno
Skaneateles

Shrine circus does not improve city’s image
To the Editor:
To the Syracuse Convention and Visitors Bureau:

Your mission states: “Strengthen the positive awareness of the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County as a convention and visitor destination, to increase revenues and stimulate economic development and growth for the community.”

Unfortunately, your selection of the Shriners’ circus does not improve Syracuse’s image in the world. Shrine circuses have deplorable records of cruelty to animals, serious violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, and animal attacks resulting in injury and even death. Elephants used by Shriners have rampaged, killing trainers and injuring children.

Most importantly, these circuses raise funds for the temples’ administrative costs, not for the Shriners children’s hospitals. By endorsing this cruel organization, which has been documented to beat and torture animals, you are showing the rest of the country just how backward and ignorant people in Central New York are. Please do us all a favor and ban animal act circuses in Syracuse!

We need to demonstrate that Central New Yorkers do know that animal cruelty is wrong and we will not participate in the perpetuation of animal abuse.

Let’s show everyone that Central New York is a progressive, positive place to live and recreate.